The Jewish Plight: Prague

In the shadow of Poland's plight during WWII are the struggles of its close by neighbors: Bohemia and Moravia. Now the Czech Republic, its Jewish history is just as rich and tragic as Poland's, and the commemoration of the Jewish plight is some of the best in Eastern Europe.

The Jewish Museum in Prague spans 11 buildings, all of which commemorate, celebrate, and remember the fight and plight of the Jewish communities there. Perhaps the most moving of all the buildings is the Pinkas Synagogue. Following the Holocaust, extensive research commenced to find the names, birth and death dates, and hometowns of all Bohemians and Moravians who died in Nazi concentration camp Terezin. Almost 80,000 names, in red and black, were painstakingly written by hand both as a record of and memorial to those lost during the Holocaust.

But perhaps the most saddening part, other than the sheer number of names, is that this is the second version of the memorial. The original was completed in 1959. But with Israel's victory in the Six-Day War and the anti-semitic sentiment of the late 1960s, all the names were removed by the communist government. After extensive restoration, the current version was completed in 1996. For many (including Madeleine Albright who found proof of her grandfathers' fate) this is the only record of what became of loved ones and families separated during Nazi occupation.

But it is not just tragedy that is remembered here; it is also Jewish tradition. You see, not only is the Jewish Quarter (Josefov) immaculately preserved, many Jewish artifacts pilfered during WWII were kept and stored in Prague by the Nazis themselves. Their intention? To erect an "exotic museum of an extinct race" once their Final Solution came to fruition.

Though their Final Solution was squelched, their intent for a museum was not, and took on a much different form than intended: one of the best preservations of a brave and thriving people! Included in this preservation is the immaculate Spanish Synagogue designed in Moorish architectural style with Arabic patterns covering its interior walls (if you didn't know better you'd think you were entering a mosque). Also here is Europe's oldest surviving Jewish cemetery – a mishmash of headstones dating as far back as the 15th century. According to Jewish law, tombs cannot be destroyed nor gravestones removed. So when land become impossible to purchase, new layers of dirt covered old ones and ALL tombstones were crammed on top.

For Jewish history and commemoration of tragedy and tradition, the much overlooked Prague definitely deserves a lookover.